With Nightmare Revisited, Evanescence’s Amy Lee has released her first new material since her band’s 2006 multi-platinum hit, The Open Door. Add that to the departure of two Evanescence members and Lee’s ever-growing musical independence, and the songstress has some explaining to do.
Lee, who is busy writing new material, talks with SPIN.com about the messy split of Evanescence’s guitarist John LeCompt and drummer Rocky Gray, writing a solo album, scoring films, and “Sally’s Song,” her contribution to Nightmare Revisited, the new collection of covers from Tim Burton’s 1993 film, The Nightmare Before Christmas.
On the state of Evanescence:
“It’s a difficult situation, as is every dramaticsituation our band has gone through. John [LeCompt, guitar], Rocky[Gray, drums] — we outgrew each other. When they joined the band, Fallen was just completed and theywere excited to be a part of something really big. From the beginning,their musical styles were very different from Evanescence. I think to adegree they got bored or frustrated. They weren’t part of the creativeprocess and were like, ‘Why are we doing this?’ Their writing justdidn’t work for Evanescence, and I have to do what’s best for the band.I’ve had a little bit of contact with John since and it was positive.Very few bands have been able to maintain their original membersforever.”
On new songs and a solo album:
“I need to show that I’m more than a one trick pony. I’m writing here at the house by myself and it’s been really good. But I’d really like to do something different next. [The new songs] are definitely different. I feel like I’m going back to my really old roots. They have more of my folky and Celtic influence than ever before. And it’s not all sad — it’s nothing I would categorize as Evanescence.”
On scoring films:
“My biggest dream from the beginning — besides Evanescence — is scoring film and writing music for film. And I’ve definitely had that in my head and have been trying to connect with the right people to get involved with the right project. I really feel like it would be great to get into a project that’s bigger than myself and be the creator and not necessarily just the performer.”
On Nightmare Revisited:
“The Nightmare Before Christmas is my number one biggest influence artistically in every way. [When I was young] I literally would sit in my bedroom and sing ‘Sally’s Song,’ or in the car driving to school. The best part about it [recording the song] was that I had no restrictions or direction or anything. I picked the producer, who’s a friend, and we just made the song however we wanted together. [We recorded the song] three months ago, in Fort Worth, TX.” [SOURCE]
